Tag: sraddha

Is there a kind of knowledge that pratyaksa alone or even pratyaksa and reason together cannot arrive at? There is, and it is known through revelation, in relation to which we have to engage our senses and reason.

Faith in revelation affords one a different kind of knowledge. Placing one’s faith in revelation and reasoning about it is theology, as opposed to mere philosophy. The subsequent knowledge arrived at through faith in spiritual practice is ultimately prema. Does prema do away with faith or does prema in some way constitute the culmination of faith?

There is a world of doubt. Why not a world of faith. Thinking like this makes faith living and tangible. Absence of doubt is faith. Faith is knowledge.

Theology means thinking critically about revelation and thereby participating in the eternal discussion, as opposed to thinking critically while unplugged from revelation. Theology only appears constraining if the principle of revelation itself is dismissed, and if it is a mistake to dismiss it, doing so is as constraining as revelation says the world of thought is. The principle underlying the notion of revelation is that comprehensive knowing cannot be arrived at without grace. The finite will know the infinite only on the infinite’s terms, not otherwise. Faith (sraddha) is rooted in this premise.